Dabo Swinney has had a good week.
Two days after winning the College Football Playoff National Championship presented by AT&T, the Clemson Tigers coach got what he called “the cherry on top,” taking home the Paul “Bear” Bryant Coach of the Year Award on Wednesday night.
It’s the second straight year that Swinney, who guided the Tigers to a 35-31 win over Alabama on Monday night to secure Clemson’s first national championship since 1981, has won the award. He joins Chris Petersen as the only other coach to win the award twice since its inception in 1986.
“I just assumed that I didn’t have a chance to win it because I didn’t think you could win it back-to-back years,” Swinney said before Wednesday’s ceremony at Toyota Center. “That’d just be the cherry on top of the week I’ve had. That’d be awesome.”
Swinney led the Tigers to consecutive national championship game appearances and a combined 28-2 record over the past two seasons. The coach said he hasn’t slept much, hasn’t even been home since Monday night’s win and that it hasn’t fully sunk in.
“It still seems like someone’s going to wake me up and I’m going to be like ‘Dadgum it! Are you kidding me?'” Swinney said. “I didn’t go to bed the first night. I didn’t get to the hotel until 3:30 [a.m.] … We literally watched the moon set and the sun rise. It was unreal. And then they come and get me and say, ‘You’ve got to go to a press conference,’ at like 9 o’clock. I don’t remember that press conference, but I did go do it. Then we flew to Nashville [for the AFCA convention], so I haven’t been home yet. I’m so excited to get back to Clemson tomorrow and get back with the team.”
“We’ve got a parade this weekend. We actually planned it before the game because we planned to win.”
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SOURCE: ESPN, Sam Khan Jr.
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